Tag: holy night

Our holiday has always revolved around school and church Christmas programs. “Away in the manager, no crib for his bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.” Baby’s first song, sung at home and at the church altar for the grown-ups when we were too small to be in the regular Christmas play.

At school, from Thanksgiving on, we practiced for our Christmas play. Mamas made costumes for angels, shepherds, sheep. We envied the two who got to play Mary and Joseph. We sang “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” We memorized the unfamiliar words, singing them over and over with our music teacher, until we could sing them in our sleep. With no shyness,we sang at the tops of our voices, little children loving to sing.

In high school, we began to sing the harder songs. “O, Holy Night.” “Little Drummer Boy.” “Gloria in Excelsis Deo.” “Hallelujah Chorus.” We started practicing long before Thanksgiving. Our Christmas concert was the culmination of months of work. We were proud of our hard work and sang with all our hearts.

I lived through it all again with my children. We put on huge productions at church with recorded music to sing to with rehearsals every Sunday night for at least 6 weeks. The music has changed, yet it stays the same. The same songs, new arrangements. Lavish stages, painted backdrops, special lighting.

At school, my daughter sang in the choir as I did many years before, so we had two performances to work on—one at school and one at church. At times, it seemed music was running through our minds all day and all night.

What better way for God to get His Word into our hearts? He set it to music and caused the world to play it through the airwaves night and day, constantly, for 2 months of the year, sometimes starting as early as Halloween.

Christmas means music to me. It really was a “Silent Night, Holy Night” when Jesus was born. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill unto men.” Luke 2:14